in thinking that DD will get nowhere with these GCSE options...

[PosyPanther]

DD is 13, so, in my opinion still a child, she changes her mind about pretty much everything daily, school shoes, whose her best friend, her favourite colour, you get the picture...

She has just had the first leaflet from school about GCSE option next year and want to pick health and social care (double award)human health and physiology instead of additional science, child development, psychology and sociology. She says she wants to do social work or primary teaching (or win the X factor )

I think she's mad. She's in the top set at school, level 5 across the board at primary school and is working at solid level 7s now. I would much prefer her to take at least two science GCSEs, history and geography instead of psych and sociology and a language with one choice left for whatever she fancies (but I'd prefer a second language or triple science.)

I can't see that having History, geography, french, german, separate science would disadvantage her in applying for ANY degree/career pathway? How do I convince her that some subjects actually are better than others? Her teachers are insisting all GCSEs are equal but I can't see that sociology is as hard as German or Physics? I'm worried she's going to close doors at 13...

I reckon 11 years is not long enough to reverse the policy of a generation Leq.

Hopefully I am wrong.

I think a compromise could be reached here. In order to not narrow her future options too much, she might be best off doing the additional science (some degrees & A level choices may require this, and employers with very traditional views will be more impressed) but largely sticking with her other choices. I know subjects like Psychology and Sociology are looked down on by some, but they are no less intellectually rigourous than some of the more traditional subjects, and in many ways are a better preparation for life. Psychology graduates, for instance, are one of the groups most likely to to be employed 6 months after leaving uni.

I have studied a real range of subjects throughout my education - after choosing a very traditional set of "serious" sciencey A levels the first time round and doing really quite badly (I found them all rather boring, despite being someone who is very interested in science and is apparently intelligent enough to manage them), then going to uni to study Physics and again doing rather badly (and dropping out after 1 year), I went back to college a few years later to study Psychology & Sociology A levels (which I did very well in). I found them infinitely more useful than anything I learnt in the previous set of A levels, much more interesting, and just as intellectually challenging! In fact, during my study of "traditional" sciences I was taught nothing about critical thought, we were actively discouraged from questioning anything, and teaching quality was generally poorer (teachers less engaged with the material they were teaching, more formulaic & uninteresting, etc). People who know nothing about Psychology think it's not very scientific, but in fact it probably gives students a better understanding of the scientific method & the philosophy of science than any "straight" science I've ever done, and trains them to be much more rigourous scientists. I learnt more about statistical analysis in A level Psychology, more about ethics, more about the advantages and disadvantages of different methodologies, more about how to avoid bias in experiments, etc (and yes, even Physics & Chemistry are susceptible to bias, misinterpretation, poorly chosen methodology & dodgy ethics). Psychology would also be an extremely valuable subject for a teacher or social worker to have studied; I wish more were familiar with the basic principles of human psychology, we'd have a lot more happy & well educated people around!

Sashmm, interesting. DD said only last night that she would have loved to do Psychology, she is doing science based A levels.

I feel quite bad for dd.

I always just assumed that she would go to university. Never thought twice about it.

Then she was diagnosed with dyslexia last year. Doesn't mean she is not bright, she is in top set for everything, but it does have an impact.

She is set to get A and A in everything. But there is such a high level of cynicism amongst teenagers now. They know that everyone outside education thinks that even A grades are worthless, compared to the halcyon days of O levels etc.

She just doesn't want to fork out all that money to study for something which may not have a direct beneficial impact on her life. So, her plan is to work as a chalet girl for a season, go and owrk with my brother in California for the summer (he is a soccer coach) and then join up the RAF for as long as she can.

I know it is stupid and it is her life, but I feel somewhat cheated, and feel she has been shortchanged somewhat.

Getof, sound like a great plan. Mine wants to defer for a year, do some voluntary work abroad as well as travelling and paid work, then go on to Uni and start the hard slog.

Getorf - I think we 'spoke' on another thread about your DD joining the RAF. It is (in general) a good career path, and once she is settled in, she could look to do an OU degree or a Masters via Kingston/Cranfield perhaps?

getorf do the RAF not sposor degrees, the same as the Army? (or has that stopped now?)

You can get dyslexia support at uni, a friend's dc is.

True, MollieO. They won't support dyslexics at school to get the grades necessary to get to Uni, but once you have struggled to get there then they support you.

He had support at school too. Ds is probably dyslexic (6 so bit young to be properly tested). His teacher says he is being taught as if he is dyslexic.

The Army doesn't sponsor degrees now (know someone whose dd is a keen army cadet and has been told nothing available). I imagine the RAF is the same.

My DS is also dyslexic and top set as well Getorfmiland with targets of A/A . School told us when he was in year 8 or 9 that they thought he was Oxbridge material because he is an abstract thinker. He does seem to determined at the moment but I don't know if he realises how much competition there will be and I suspect his SLD problems could just make the difference. He is talking about medicine or forensics but I suspect he will end up in engineering. He is taking electronics as one of his gcse options but hopefully that is not viewed as too lite* He is also taking photography but that is an extra option done after school.

I got to two red brick universities, 2:1 BSc and Msc, while having dyslexia. Both times there were other dyslexics on the courses. I know competition has increased over last decade - but I would not write the possibilities off just because of dyslexia.

Funnily enough my brotehr was written off as being a bit slack at school, once he was at university they diagnosed him with dyslexia.

He said it was great, he got a laptop for free and loads of help.

Bruffin I don't think electronics is a light subject, it's bloody hard going. Dd wanted to do electronics (hers is a technology college, so they have to do a DT subject) but they dropped electronics. So she is doing food tech! She said ANYTHING is better than textiles.

She was thinking about being sponsored however she wouldn't want to study maths or engineering at degree level, and you have to do one of those subjects to get a bursary.

She has a lot of 18 year old friends at cadets who want to go in the RAF and they are being told there are no places for them

It's a bloody shame.

I feel very sorry for them - christ it was all grants when I was her age.

Never mind. At least she is happy with the fact i am not letting her waste £20 grand on studying Make Up Packaging Design or something.

GOML- are you me? My brother is also in California (well, temporarily in Dallas at the mo) where he set up a rugby club (Malibu RC). My oldest (DS) is also an A/A candidate with some undiagnosed literacy and organisational issues which I suspect may add up to dyslexia () although he has largely overcome them (apart from the organisational and punctuation problems). He has opted not to apply to Oxbridge but to Bristol (for engineering) which has a higher application/place ratio than Oxbridge. Frankly I am quaking.

( for example: he got effing D for a piece of assessed work for his Geography GCSE- sloppy text, haphazard presentation, appalling unspellchecked spelling -but an A overall because he only lost 2 points on the end exam.)

at duchesse

My dd's issue are hugely organisational. Whenever she writes anything it's like a mad scrawl.

My brother works as a soccer coach for rich children. And also coaches a female soccer team at a prestigious private college. His girlfriend looks like a pussycat doll. He lives in Pacific Palisades. I live in sodding Gloucester. There is something wrong there somewhere.

I can hugely recommend Bristol for engineering, that's where I graduated from.

Aargh, not the pussy cat Californian doll gf! Tell him to run a mile and find a nice European girl- there are plenty about in CA. My brother is still smarting from his dolly mad bitch ex-wife. He lived latterly just off PCH in Malibu. Now temporarily in Dallas.

Oh I don't know, the pussycat doll woman is so gorgeous, I am in love with her .

He is 23 and living the life of Riley.

I have asked him when he is coming to come back and live in the UK. He just laughs at me, the git.

Mind you, he says that the polarisation of life in the uS is frightening. He works with some of the most privileged kids in the country, and also does an outreach programme running soccer skills clubs in south central LA. Says there is a window of opportunity in very early teens where the kids respond to soccer. Then the lights in their eyes go out, as they are recruited by the gangs.

Mine's 35 and has been living the life of Riley for 13 years now and is beginning to tire of it. He feels like he's beating his head against a wall trying to make a successful career in the US- everything's so unstable workwise. He seems to spend quite a lot of time doing menial jobs whilst trying to make his various business ventures work and playing rugby and cricket.

Oh no - poor him. Completely different having an unsettled life in the US in your early 20s.

I think the thing which will do it for my brother are the constant visa hassles.

Ha! visa hassles!! My brother could write a manual on them. Once had to go to Mexico then cross back with his MIL (she drove all the way to Mexico from Malibu to fetch, lovely lady) pretending to have been robbed in Tijuana because border guard refused to readmit him after a holiday in Dominican Rep. He now has a proper green card after years on student visas where they'd ask how long he was staying and how he was supporting himself every time he re-entered. He and his now ExW applied at the same time (her mother had lived in LA for 30 years so was easier for her) and got them at the same time.

He hates coming back to the Uk and having to go through all the rigmarole of re-applying, he always has to be very careful about where he says he is working, not admit he has an american girlfriend etc.

He consulted an immigration attorney aboyt getting a green card - he was told quite clearly that the quickest way of getting one would be to marry an american